Need to boost cell signal, will spend $$ !

What model directional antenna are you using on the outside? How far apart is the external antenna from the internal one? What carrier are your phones on and are you sure the tower you're aiming at is for that company?

 

webscathe,

You left out the important adjective in the phrase "high gain directional". It was "omni", any direction, all 360 degrees around the horizon, as described on the cae700-70's page. This would be satisfactory if you had several cell sites around the horizon, any of which would be good enough. You want a "high gain uni-directional" antenna, since you have only one cell site to aim at. Their model CAY819 is dual band cellular and PCS, like the electronics you already have. There are longer ones, with higher gain, elsewhere.

You haven't mentioned location or wireless company. That might have let you chose a single band solution. A few of the others here have experience with similar systems, and some searching will find those threads.

COtech

 

On the inside you're using the antenna that came with the unit correct? The CA-P2004 is a pretty wide antenna and really isn't that high of gain so you're gonna pick up any tower to the left or right of where it's aimed. To start, I'd get as close to that tower as possible and confirm that it's Verizon Wireless. When you're right at the tower, you should be seeing levels in the -50 to -60 range, possibly -40's. If that is the Verizon tower nearest you, I'd suggest switching to a different antenna, such as the CAY819. It's gonna give you a bit more gain, but it will help reject any other towers in the area and isolate your two antennas. If you're lower in the valley from the tower, make sure to angle the external antenna upwards toward it.

 

Hah, beat me to it, but yeah the CAY819 would probably be a better choice. Forgot to ask how long your cables are? I'd measure out what you need and have the cables custom made (or at least shorter pieces) to that length, as with the two 50' pieces LMR400 that they are providing, you're loosing a lot of signal, especially if your internal antenna is located right next to the repeater itself and you've got 45' of the 50' coiled up.

 

...please allow me to chime in (and pimp my app ), but if you have a Symbian or BlackBerry phone with a GPS, it may be useful for you to plot the signal-strength and Cell ID's in your area. This could help you locate where the nearby towers are, or at least the direction where the strong signals are coming from.

You can visit the website here: Cellumap Cellular Coverage Maps

...and if you have a Blackberry, you can download the app OTA, by pointing your BlackBerry browser to: cellumap.com/ota

Here's a screenshot of some points being viewed:

 

Yea, there's not many people using the app, so there's not points everywhere. But you said you have a BB? Does it have a GPS? If yes, then you can download the app right onn your BlackBerry browser from cellumap.com/ota and start running it and plotting points yourself.

PS- From your zip, I think you are near Utica? If yes, then there are a cuople of AT&T GSM points there. See the yellow and green dots with the signal strength value (in -dBm) inside:

 

With their new suggestion, I'd recommend finding some higher gain antennas for each band, though it looks as if Verizon Wireless is primarily on 850 where you are at. The CAY819 is already a 10db gain antenna so I'm not sure what benefit they think you'll get with the dual antennas and diplexer setup unless they intend for you to aim them at two different towers. Unless you've got a need locally to aim at two different directions, I'd stick with the CAY819.

 

A SVW819 Wireless amplifier Kit will do the job for you

https://www.maximumsignal.net/store/product.php?productid=16230&cat=2&page=1

And just to be sure , an induction Cradle for you Blackberry will do the trick

https://www.maximumsignal.net/store/product.php?

We are waiting on final FCC approval on our new In-Home Wireless Systems . When available we will be doing another giveaway here on these forums for one .

 

I know very little about the hardware mentioned in this thread -- and I'm not sure about the total cost of this project.... But my question is, does this location have access to wired broadband Internet? I know you would have a monthly cost for the Internet service, but if you seeking to provide cell service to this location (as opposed to a landline), femtocell might be a cheaper option:

Verizon Wireless Network Extender
Enter your location

Verizon (and AT&T) will swear that they will cover 99+ percent of the country with wireless in a matter of a few years. I would hate to see someone spend money on all of the antennas, and Verizon puts up a new tower in a year or something. Depending on the location, you could get away spending $20 a month for high speed internet (to use with the Verizon femtocell AND other devices at this location) and it would likely be faster than data services with Verizon... And could very well be cheaper and MUCH easier to setup. Just an idea

 

A femtocell is also a good idea, and well worth mentioning here. The only downsides is, as you mentioned, and internet connection is required. Also femtos don't usually have a strong output power, so the area it covers could be smaller than that of a repeater. Also a femto would only be for 1 carrier while a repeater would cover all carriers using that band (850 or 1900).

So I guess you would have to weigh the pros and cons of each, and decide what better suits your needs. But yea, that topic was overlooked in this thread, thanks for bringing it up

 

Using two single band antennas (cellular and PCS, 850 and 1900 MHz) would be useful if the Verizon and AT&T (cellular) sites were in a different direction from the Sprint and T-Mobile (PCS) sites. I hope you know the neighborhood cell sites well enough to point both separately.

COtech

 

.... right, hence my last line in the quote. Since he originally said he's only worrying about Verizon I didn't see a gain from aiming in two different directions. Now that he's added the wanting of multiple carriers it changes things.

 

As COtech said, it's very important that you know where the towers are and what frequency it operates on. I would suggest taking a phone from each operator, that can show signal strength and frequency info and driving around to see if you can find the tower locations. If you can't find exactly where the tower is, then at least note which direction the strong signal is coming from (if you have a BlackBerry my Cellumap app aould be very useful for that purpose). Good luck

 

We have a similar situation, but able to pick up enough signal with a small external antenna with an adapter that feeds right into our cells and internet card. So, I can't help you on the outside of the house, but what we found for inside (and we live in a steel house), is the Xlink adapter, which converts the bluetooth signal from your cell into a cordless phone. We are able to position the antenna and phone together in one part of the house, then use the cordless phone to move around the house with no loss of quality. Don't know if that will help in your case, but worth a look. Just google Xlink.

Good luck!
Kari

 

The same thing happens in my condo building. I get a perfect signal in my living room, but if I walk down the hallway to the elevator it drops completely. I don't mean inside the elevator -- that would be obvious -- but in the area around it, even though it's right by the windows.

It's so strange -- I can see the cell tower not too far away and there's still no signal there. Have talked to management about having a receiver or something put in to no avail.

 

Just putting up antennas conected to nothing does nothing.The whole passive thing just does not cut it. You need a wireless amplifier. Like I said we are waiting on FCC approval on new units . FCC is cracking down an amplifiers and alot of units will not be available in the future if the carriers have their way . Try wpsantennas.com - Cellular Antenna and Amplifier Reception Solutions . They know their stuff. Soon we hope to have our new units available. This new FCC testing is a very long drawn out process . The new units I am referring to have been in FCC testing for 9 months at this point

 

Current amplifiers on the market usually require 2 bars of donor signal to be effective. Do you have at least 2 bars of donor signal out side where you outdoor antenna are mounted ? If not one of the tricks we use is to put a direct connect amplifier inline as a pre amplifier so the wireless amplifiers have a better signal to work with ( you only do this if your donor signal is really weak to start with). Direct connect amplifiers can work with a much weaker signal to start with .

 

Because of the Signal to Noise Ratio. (SNR) A poor quality amp will introduce so much noise into the signal when trying to amplify it, that it defeats the purpose.

Have you looked at our solutions? We have provided reception to many persons in remote locations where they once had no reception and had to drive over a mile to even get a signal reading. With extremely poor reception on your deck, you are in a very good position to get a solution working. Not every case is a winner, but those are the cases where a customer had to drive for between 5-10 miles in mountainous to get a reading.

Depending on the size area you need to cover, you may want to check out this kit:

JD55-PR Rual Kit

Email us anytime if you have any questions.

JDTECK

 

Hello. Just another thing to remember, the carrier(s) may be using electrical and/or mechanical downtilt on their antennas, which may mean that the direct line of sight between you and tower may not actually contain the most RF power. You can also pretty much bet the carriers are aware of the hill and have run their own propagation studies long before construction of the tower commenced..

Also, I could not tell from your LOS plot, but these plots typically will exclude losses due to trees, buildings and other obstructions. In other words, they plot the mean sea level (MSL) elevation. Trees and buildings will generally make things worse for reception. Some of the fancier models allow you to account for these additional obstructions, or alternatively, smooth them out a little by using the USGS Land Use Land Cover database (which is a reasonable alternative for many rural and suburban situations).

Regardless, you still appear to be in a situation where knife-edge diffraction and scattering will be an issue, as well as the partially blocked Fresnel zone (which appears severe in your plot). If you want to email me your coordinates via private email, I will be happy to run a (quick) proper study for you. I too would be curious to know what exactly what it takes to get cellular service at your location, 4 miles from the tower.

Good luck.
-Michael

 

I would definately recommend a Wilson amplifier. My father has a Wilson Signalboost DB Pro and his Sprint signal increased from a -98 outside (-106 inside) to now having between a -75 and -85 throughout the entire home! We now have full bars with 3G and have never been happier!

 

Are Anytone products FCC approved for legal use in the USA? Don't see any listing with the FCC.

When we tested their products the craftsmanship was extremely poor. Has it improved since?

 

Service providers all over the world are having major problems with rouge repeaters that do not meet quality standards on their network. This repeater could be providing the end user an acceptable signal, but they would be clueless if they have increased the noise floor on that sector of the network, caused a spike in the spectrum or knocked out another carrier's sector.

It could take a service provider months to track someone down in a densely populated area.

Anytone products are known for doing this.